Two Familiar Achilles Heels Continue to Plague the Rockets in Loss

After a comeback emotional win over the Miami Heat on Saturday night in front of the Toyota Center fans, the Rockets headed out on the road with a lot of momentum.

The Rocket fans watch Kevin Durant pass one of, if not the greatest player of all time in scoring, Michael Jordan. To cap off the night, they saw Amen Thompson save the day with a game-winning tip-in at the buzzer.

The Rockets hoped a win would propel them into a late-season push as they continue to fight for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

They started their four-game road trip Monday against a Chicago Bulls team that has struggled, to say the least, over the last two months. The Bulls are coming into Monday's matchup struggling, to say the least. They were 28-42 after a month in February, when they didn't win a single game.

The Rockets were hoping for an easy victory as they prepared to take on the Minnesota Timberwolves with a chance to win their first tiebreaker against a top-six team in the Western Conference standings. A bad opponent with a big game ahead is an equal disaster for the Rockets this season, and it happened again last night.

The Rockets again came out flat to start the game against an opponent they were favored to beat, trailing the struggling Bulls by 20 points in the first quarter.

The Rockets fought back all game and eventually took the lead, but like so many times before, when you struggle all game and have to fight back, you eventually will run out of steam, and that's exactly what happened in the Rockets' loss Monday night. Despite stand out performances by Kevin Durant and Alperen Sengun who combined for 73 points that is exaclty what happen to the Rockets.

The Rockets didn't play with a sense of urgency in Monday's game, but they also struggled in two categories that have been issues all season. That is free-throw shooting and especially 3-point shooting, and it cost them another important game.

The Rockets Continue to Struggle From the 3-Point Line and the Free-Throw Line in Loss

Throughout the season, the Houston Rockets have struggled at times on the offensive end of the court. The Rockets have been a bottom-ten team offensively for the last few months and have played a major role in many of their recent losses.

Two areas that have stood out for the Rockets in a negative way most of the season have been 3-point shooting and free-throw shooting. Those two areas have really stood out in recent losses. They made a season low of four 3-pointers in the blowout loss to the Denver Nuggets while going 5-14 from the free-throw line.

In their first of back-to-back losses against the Lakers, they went 5-26 from beyond the arc, and even though they only missed four free throws, they did so in only 15 attempts.

Those two areas were again an issue in Monday's loss to the Bulls. Some may point to the Rockets' lack of defense as they surrendered 41 points to the Bulls in the first quarter, and that defintely played a factor.

However, what really kick-started a lot of those points was the Rockets' lack of shot-making on their own end of the court. The Rockets missed their first ten 3-pointers, which helped the Bulls, a team that loves to push pace, get out in the open court and spread the Rockets' defense thin.

Even though the Rockets eventually started making shots from deep, it was still a problem most of the game, and put them in a deep hole. The Rockets finished 11-41 from 3-point range for 27 percent, while the Bulls shot 19-38 from 3-point range.

Free throw shooting wasn't much better, as the Rockets missed nine free throws, going 15-24 from the charity stripe in an eight-point loss in which they were only down three points in the last 30 seconds.

It has been a common theme, especially in the last few months, as the Rockets rank in the bottom ten in both 3-point shooting and free-throw shooting since January 1st. Those two catenaries again plagued the Rockets and could mean the difference between starting at home in the playoffs and having to start the first two games in a hostile environment.